Population 15.2
million. Land area 246,201. Labor force 3.5 million Labor force by occupation
agriculture 60.2%, services 32.5% industry 7.4%.
GDP $17.5 billion.
Main industries include sugar refining, textiles, livestock, money transfer and
telecommunications.
Exports $819 million
including livestock, bananas, hides fish, charcoal and scrap metal. Sold to UAE
36.1%, Oman 33.4%, Yemen 15.1%.
Imports $3.5 billion
(2014) include manufactured products, petroleum products, foodstuffs and
construction materials bought from India 26.3%, China 20.8%, Oman 9.1%, Turkey
6%, Malasia 4.3%, Brazil 4.2%.
External debt $3
billion, Government Revenue $145.3 million, Spending $151.1 million.
Somalia is the easternmost country
of Africa, on
the Horn
of Africa. It extends from just south of the Equator northward
to the Gulf
of Aden and occupies an important geopolitical position between
sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of Arabia and
southwestern Asia. The
capital, Mogadishu, is
located just north of the Equator on the Indian Ocean.
The Republic of Somalia was formed in 1960 by the federation
of a former Italian colony and a British protectorate. Mohamed
Siad Barre (Maxamed Siyaad Barre) held dictatorial rule over the
country from October 1969 until January 1991, when he was overthrown in a
bloody civil war waged by clan-based guerrillas. After Siad’s fall from power,
warfare continued and the country lacked an effective centralized
government—problems that persisted into the 21st century. Moreover, a de facto
government declared the formation of an independent Republic of Somaliland in
the north in 1991. Similarly, in 1998 the autonomous region
of Puntland (the Puntland State of Somalia) was self-proclaimed in the
northeast.
Decades of civil hostilities have virtually
destroyed Somalia’s economy and infrastructure and split the country into areas under the
rule of various entities. When Somalia’s tenuous
transitional administration handed
power to a new government in 2012, the newly declared Federal Republic of
Somalia had only limited control over the country. There was, however, hope
that the new government would usher in a new era, one in which peace would be
achieved and Somalis could focus on rebuilding their country.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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